On Thursday January 8, a group of 40 retired Brazilian diplomats signed a statement against Israel’s appointment of Mr. Dani Dayan for the Israeli Embassy in Brazil, re-stating discontentment with the way Dayan was announced and with his role in the settlement movement, which they view as an affront to Brazil’s positions against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. Last year, a group of Brazilian social movements also released its own statement, in an effort to draw attention to Dayan’s role as incompatible with Brazil’s position and growing solidarity with the Palestinians.

Skipping diplomatic protocols, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Dayan’s appointment last year, emphasizing how Israel aims to strengthen its commercial partnerships with “strategic” Latin America. The career diplomats signing the statement think the act of bypassing diplomatic protocol was done “on purpose”, since it was not preceded by any communication with the Brazilian Foreign Ministry nor any presentation of his credentials for an agreement.

The diplomats state their opposition to Dayan’s appointment especially because of his role among the settler movement, since he presided the Yesha Council between 2007 and 2013 and still lives in a settlement, Ma’ale Shomron, in territories that Brazil has recognized as part of the State of Palestine since 2010. In addition, the diplomats remember, Dayan also has stated his opposition to the establishment of the Palestinian state.

The Brazilian Government has already demonstrated opposition to Dayan’s appointment and this provoked disproportionate reaction of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Former Brazilian Minister of Defense Jaques Wagner, who is a member of the Brazilian Jewish community, was contacted by his Israeli counterpart Moshe Ya’alon, in another breach of protocol, in an attempt to exert pressure on the Government’s decision. Wagner has changed his post since then and stopped receiving Ya’alon’s calls, according to the Brazilian media.

Dayan claimed that Netanyahu did not pressure Brazil enough to accept his appointment, according to a Haaretz report, and his concern was that it would “create a precedent barring settlers from representing Israel abroad”. Well, this should be exactly the goal.

Dayan would prefer to see Israel in another indelicate and arrogant position towards Brazil, after one of its diplomatic representatives already classified the country as a “diplomatic dwarf” for condemning the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza in 2014. In that case, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin had to try and amend the situation with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in phone call.

Israeli illegal settlements in occupied Palestine continue to expose the country to growing international boycotts and diplomatic constraints. In Brazil, solidarity with the Palestinians against the occupation and for a free and independent State is also growing, despite the national media’s simplistic and overall biased coverage. Recently, we have had our own cases of baseless “anti-Semitism” charges for an important BDS action in an University and a campaign was launched to alert two of the main popular singers in Brazil, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, who sang in Israel last year. They traveled despite the campaigns, but later, Veloso published an article condemning the occupation, saying he would never go back to Israel, and received heavy criticism from a fraction of the Jewish community.

Read the translation of the diplomats’ statement:

“Forty of the most reputed Brazilian Ambassadors signed the following note on Israel:

We, the retired diplomats undersigned, remembering Ambassador Luís Martins de Sousa Dantas, who saved hundreds of Jews from the Holocaust; pride of the role played;

We, the retired diplomats undersigned, remembering Ambassador Luís Martins’ memory representing Brazil at the United Nations when, with Osvaldo Aranha as the President of the UN General Assembly, the creation of the State of Israel was approved;

We consider it unacceptable that the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, has publicly announced the name of the person he intended to appoint as his country’s new Ambassador to Brazil before submitting it, in accordance to the norm, to our Government. This rupture with a diplomatic practice seems to have been on purpose, an attempt to establish facts, since the appointed, Dani Dayan, between 2007 and 2013, was the President of the Yesha Council, responsible for the settlements in the West Bank, which are considered illegal by the international community, and has already declared himself contrary to the creation of the Palestinian State, which counts on the support of the Brazilian Government and was already recognized by over 70% of the UN member States.

Under these conditions, we support the Brazilian Government’s position on this issue and wish that the current episode is quickly overcome, so we can, together, strengthen the bonds between the two countries in a historical moment in which the conciliatory spirit becomes imperative.

Adhemar Bahadian

Amaury Porto de Oliveira

Armando Victor Boisson Cardoso

Brian Michael Fraser Neele

Carlos Alberto Leite Barbosa

Carlos Eduardo Alves de Souza

Christiano Whitaker

Edgar Telles Ribeiro

Fernando Guimarães Reis

Fernando Silva Alves

Geraldo Holanda Cavalcanti

Heloisa Vilhena de Araujo

Hildebrando Tadeu Valladares

Janine-Monique Bustani

Joaquim A. Whitaker Salles

Jorio Dauster

José Maurício Bustani

José Viegas Filho

Julio Cesar Gomes dos Santos

Luciano Rosa

Luiz Augusto de Castro Neves

Luiz Fachini-Gomes

Luiz Felipe Lampreia

Luiz Orlando Carone Gelio

Marcílio Marques Moreira

Marcio Dias

Maria Celina Azevedo Rodrigues

Oswaldo Portella

Roberto Abdenur

Ronaldo Mota Sardenberg

Samuel Pinheiro Guimarães

Sergio Fernando Guarischi Bath

Sergio A. Florencio Sobrinho

Sergio Henrique Nabuco de Castro

Sergio Serra

Stelio Amarante

Thereza Quintella

Vera Pedrosa

Virgílio Moretzsohn de Andrade

Washington Luis P. Sousa”

About Moara Crivelente

Moara Crivelente is a PhD student in International Relations and Conflict Resolution, a journalist and a member of the Brazilian Center for Solidarity with the Peoples and Struggle for Peace (Cebrapaz), advising the Presidency of the World Peace Council. She blogs at The World and The Resistance.

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48 Responses

It is so obvious that Israelis have a bad habit of being where they are unwanted. Whether it is in stolen lands, or a diplomat in another land, no amount of international laws, or statements of protests, can deter this arrogant lot. It must be their thick skins, because their zio leader Beebs certainly seem to have one.

Zionism has practiced for many years the technique of pushing against others, often illegally or to achieve an illegal purpose, possibly just to see what happens, a bit like kids testing their parents by staying up past their bedtimes. As to the USA, Israel (almost) always gets whatever it wants and has thus (rather naturally) supposed it will always get away with whatever it does.

I’m delighted with these Brazilians and with their government which has, so far, refused Dayan. A diplomatic break with Israel would be a jolly thing. I hope it happens.

Mossad officials are training Iranian dissident activists to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists, a NBC News report citing U.S. officials said on Thursday. The report noted, however, that Washington was not directly involvement in the alleged attacks.
The report by NBC News followed Iranian accusations that Israel and the U.S. had been orchestrating attacks against Iranian scientists and military officials associated with Iran’s nuclear program.
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-s-mossad-trained-assassins-of-iran-nuclear-scientists-report-says-1.411945

If the Israelis had any sense at all, they would have quietly withdrawn Dayan when objections were first made, and sent another ambassador acceptable to the host country. That, after all, would be in line with diplomatic protocol, whereby the host country always has the right to accept or reject a foreign diplomat. Nobody would have been any the wiser.

But no, they have to insult the host nation and make a spectable of themselves on the world stage. And do they seriously think that the Brazilians are so worried about losing Israeli military ‘expertise’ (which I doubt is unique) and can be bullied into submission? It shows the extraordinary arrogance and autism of Israel, seen at the highest diplomatic levels, and also i the thuggish behaviour of Israeli airline passengers who don’t think normal rules apply to them.

A Millwall onto the nations. Nobody likes us. We don’t care.

And yet the same country would barely last a day without Gentiles propping them up.

It shows the extraordinary arrogance and autism of Israel, seen at the highest diplomatic levels.

Oh, I’m pretty sure many if not most Israeli diplomats are suffocated by their government short-sighted and hubristic approach. Unfortunately, the elected officials currently dominating the israeli political class as well as those who vote for them tend to mistake belligerence for strength and are unlikely to back down, because they’d view it at “looking weak“.

“And yet the same country would barely last a day without Gentiles propping them up.”

I wouldn’t bet on this. Who exactly is “propping” us up? Anti-JudeoChristian civilisation Marxsist in the White House? The neo-commies in Brussels that care more about a conservatory-extension in Gilo then the cultural suicide by Merkel by inviting hordes of Muslim invaders? Is it the new Muslim lover in Ottawa?

Is it fashionable? Pretending that the Western powers aren’t keeping the State of Israel afloat, I mean?
The problem with self-serving, tribalistic bullshit is that if left unchallenged it gains a momentum of its own: eventually a growing number of politicians will feel compelled to play along this fable, and to prove their audience they are *true believers*, they’ll base their actual policies on the fable, burn bridges and cripple the network of support their country can’t function without.

(And as Mooser noticed: yeah, you’re deliberately confusing Jews, the Israeli elites and the voting block that supports them as if all three where the same thing, which they’re not… Now, wasn’t there something in Moses’ Laws about bearing false witness?)

Oh I dunno, how about the US? Why would AIPAC spend so much time, money and effort lobbying Congress if Israel didn’t need to the US to prop them up?

The neo-commies in Brussels that care more about a conservatory-extension in Gilo then the cultural suicide by Merkel by inviting hordes of Muslim invaders? –

That’s odd. I thought you Zios argued the Palestinians were being inhumane and unreasonable for welcoming hordes of Jewish immigrants and refugees from Europe into Palestine. Are you now suggesting that the Mandate for a Jewish National Home was a recipe for cultural murder of the Palestinians?

@Shingo: “thought you Zios argued the Palestinians were being inhumane and unreasonable for welcoming hordes of Jewish immigrants and refugees from Europe into Palestine” By “welcoming”, you mean the 1929 Hebron massacres? 1936 pogroms? Countless other attacks and lust for Jewish blood? This is “welcoming” for you?

Your worst nightmare will be when we elect an almost-Marxist this coming November, one of your “own” who will take away the bogus tax breaks for contributions to organizations that fund your illegal occupations and who won’t be so ready to pour $billions$ into the gas tank of your Palestinian annihilation machine. When that nightmare comes true, worse yet for you, you’ll be wide awake but it won’t go away.

By “welcoming” refugees, the normal human world means showing hospitality and support to people who are seeking refuge (i.e. people persecuted because, say, they are said to be Jewish) who will, in exchange of this sometimes life-saving hospitality, live according to the customs and laws of the people among whom they have been accepted, refrain from causing aggravation and be good and helpful residents, good citizens if admitted to citizenship
NOT to armed bands of pirates and murderers who have already declared their intent to take over the sovereignty of your country and kick out the locals already in 1894, have been buying Ottoman farms and leaving jobless the locals, have had their shameless intention of taking over the country and carving a state for the invaders confirmed by the overlord of the subdued country, have been applying a ferocious repression against the very people who housed them. 1929 was nothing: in another country not a single molecule of the invaders would have survived, no matter the English nanny protecting the bandits.
Zionists have a different definition for everything normal humans do or think. They must have a different definition of humanity.

excellent pushback against israel Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely’s recently announced new “action plan” to pressure Brazil to approve Dayan’s appointment, including threatening to downgrade relations with Brazil if the confirmation doesn’t go through — at end of december:

It could use Mondoweiss’s surgical journalistic dissection, of what’s included, what’s left out, and why.

For me, it confirmed the belief that Netanyahu will keep escalating his war-footing, against Obama, Iran, the Palestinians, Islam in general, NGOs, BDS, international human rights organizations, etc., until he’s thrown from office. Reason isn’t going to change his mind, nor soften his tactics. Opposition just escalates his intensity.

While the piece put Netanyahu’s rise to power in the context of the Israeli politics surrounding Oslo and Rabin’s assassination, and the right-wing fervor opposed to Rabin and the concept of land for peace, it failed to touch at all on the recent Israeli election, even amidst substantial coverage of his speech to Congress, weeks before his own election day.

I think Netanyahu in this term plays ever more to his right wing, and specifically strives to get out ahead of people like Naftali Bennett (who think he’s too soft), by insulting the US, Brazil, France, etc. There’s no component of his government to urge moderation; only pressure to escalate.

KING JAMES VERSION:
• Genesis 7:12 – And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exodus 24:18
• Acts 7:30 – Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him [i.e., Moses] in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.
• Exodus 24:18 – Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
• Exodus 34:28 – Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant–the Ten Commandments.
• 1 Kings 19:8 – So he [i.e., Elijah] got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God [having fled Jezebel].
• Luke 4:2 – [Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.] And when he [i.e., Jesus] had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward hungry. [And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.] ~ The Temptation of Jesus
• Acts 1:3 – [. . . until the day when He (i.e. – Jesus) was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen.] To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

MY COMMENT: A YouTube link was not meant to be there. I know not from whence it came. Ditto for the 24:18.
This computer has been acting kind of freaky* lately. Not to mention myself.
Consequently, it has become a regular freakfest around here.
And, that’s not the worst of it.
Or, even the half of it.
“Intelligent Design”, my ass!

* freaky as in frequent instances of contextual menus showing up entirely uninvited and at the most inconvenient of times (the height of rudeness)

Says a hateful and immoral Zio-supremacist whose collective believes that “diplomacy” comprises advocating, supporting, justifying and/or defending Jewish supremacism in/and a religion-supremacist “Jewish State” in as much as possible of Palestine as well as related past and on-going (war) crimes. Good one! :-)

|| … But that’s what happens in third world countries like Brazil, where “diplomats” are not real diplomats, but cronies. … ||

And in third-world countries like Israel, where “diplomats” are not real diplomats but (war) criminals.

|| … The appointment of an ambassador is decided by the diplomat’s country, not by the host country. Period. … ||

Israel gets to decide who is its ambassador to Brazil. Semi-colon. And Brazil gets to decide whether it accepts Israel’s decision. Period.

That is a very loose term but also one that is often used very condescendingly. There is no very clear definition, but elements of the consensus suggest that Israel is just as third world as Brazil, e.g.:

(1) Third world countries were neither within the old Soviet sphere of influence, nor a formal ally of the USA and Britain. Yet Brazil has long been within the American sphere of influence and was the only South American country to send troops to fight alongside the allies in WWII. Relations are generally warm with 83% of Brazilians viewing US influence positively and 66% of Americans viewing Brazil positively. A lower proportion of Americans view Israel favourably. Much is made by US politicians of supposedly close US-Israel ties but the actual relationship is often undermined by settlement activities, refusal to allow entry to American citizens of Palestinian origin, espionage, the sale by Israel of secret US technology to China, partisan interference in US politics and deliberate attempts by the GOI to undermine US diplomatic initiatives. With friends like Israel who needs enemies.
(2) Third world countries are largely ex-colonial territories – Brazil gained its independence as long ago as 1822 – but Israel not until 1948.
(3) Third world countries are major recipients of Foreign Aid, with Israel being the largest cumulative recipient of US aid since World War II.
(4) Third world countries are generally underdeveloped. Brazil is industrialising rapidly whereas Israeli prosperity is stalling under the influence of BDS, and so difficult is the situation that Israelis are forced to steal land, water, and mineral resources from their neighbours.
(5) Third world countries often face inefficiency, corruption, human rights abuses and suffer from bloated militaries, required to maintain internal stability. Unfortunately both countries have engaged in or still engage in police brutality, torture, summary executions, human trafficking and the systematic exploitation of indigenous or black populations.

Much is made by US politicians of supposedly close US-Israel ties but the actual relationship is often undermined by settlement activities, refusal to allow entry to American citizens of Palestinian origin, espionage, the sale by Israel of secret US technology to China, partisan interference in US politics and deliberate attempts by the GOI to undermine US diplomatic initiatives.

bryan, not sure if you saw this comment, making the argument Israel has maintained its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza “As a quid pro quo for hegemonic services” > > http://mondoweiss.net/2015/12/reveals-special-relationship#comment-819680, just wondering if you (or anyone else) can explain how, if at all, Israel has served US hegemonic interests in the last half century, other than (arguably) serving US interests in ’67 — so let’s make that the last 48 years instead of 1/2 century. any ideas that would counter balance all the undermining of US diplomatic initiatives you’ve referenced.

Thanks for pointing that out, Annie – I hadn’t spotted it. Seems to me a dangerously arse-about-face view of history and geopolitics. Far from serving US hegemonic interests, it would seem to me, and many historians I’ve encountered, that Israeli policy has repeatedly undermined America’s strategic interests. Far from being a reward for the supposed strategic support, Israel’s policies in the occupied territories appear to be a slap in the face to the USA’s declared stance on resolving the conflict and clear evidence of the influence of a very powerful domestic lobby in dictating the acceptable paramaters of American foreign policy (i.e. complicity with the project). If I have time tomorrow I will respond to that post.

Funny…. That’s what people throughout ‘first world’ Europe were saying last January when our country was in mourning for the Paris attacks and Bibi invited himself Paris, ignoring Hollande’s request that he stay away.

Well, the world needed a laugh, and Bibi made himself a laughingstock.

How Bibi Tried To Make Paris All About HimBy Lisa GoldmanJanuary 12, 2015

For those who haven’t been following the story, Netanyahu crashed the national solidarity event despite President Hollande’s explicit request that he stay at home. Then, after the VIP reception at the Elysee Palace, cameras for a local media outlet caught him elbowing aside a female French minister as he tried to jump the queue for the bus that would transport the group to the starting point of the march. Finding himself relegated to the second row at the march itself, he shoved aside the president of Mali and inserted himself in the front row, one down from Hollande himself and within eyesight of Angela Merkel.

Noy Alooshe, the Israeli journalist and musician who became a YouTube sensation with his 2011 remix of Zenga Zenga (spoofing Libya’s then-leader, Muammar Qaddafi), created a new clip spoofing Netanyahu’s Paris antics. Alooshe uses the theme song for Loony Tunes to accompany speeded-up footage of Bibi pushing aside the Malian president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keitar, in order to insert himself in the front row. Perhaps the funniest part is when the Malian leader leaps away from Bibi’s touch as though the latter had a communicable disease. It wouldn’t do, presumably, for the violent Islamists in Mali to see images of the country’s president walking arm-in-arm with the prime minister of the “Zionist entity.”

Just a few leaders down the front row was Mahmoud Abbas, standing near King Abdullah and Queen Rania of Jordan. Did he and Bibi exchange meaningful glances? After all, the Palestinian leader’s presence was salt in the wound for Netanyahu, who insisted on coming despite Hollande’s request that he stay home. But Bibi got his own back: in the photograph tweeted from his official account, all but Abbas’s right ear is cropped out of the frame.

The day of bad behavior was just getting started. That evening, after a meeting with Jewish community leaders (who later said they wished Netanyahu would stop telling the Jews of France that they should all move to Israel), Netanyahu gave a speech at Paris’s main synagogue. The crowd greeted him with enthusiastic cheers and listened warmly as he told them that their true home was in Israel, which was waiting with open arms to embrace them.

But in a photograph of the capacity crowd in the synagogue sanctuary tweeted by foreign ministry spokesperson Ofir Gindelman, one can see only French flags, with not a single Israeli flag visible. This is a remarkable contrast with U.S. synagogues, where the pulpit is usually decorated with American and Israeli flags. But the piece de resistance came immediately after Netanyahu had finished delivering his speech, and had already turned his back on the crowd to leave. Before he could step down from the bimah, one of the Jewish leaders grabbed a microphone and launched into a spontaneous rendition of the French national anthem. Not Hatikvah, but the Marseillaise. Within seconds the entire audience had joined in, singing loudly and emotionally.

Netanyahu was forced to stand there, facing the yarmulke-wearing French Jews after just having finished telling them that their true home was Israel. Were his lips pressed together because he did not know the words? He did not look pleased at all.

Here is another illegal squatter, calling for the annexation of Area C .He claims the squatters do not enjoy the same rights as their fellow Jews living in Israel , (wherever the f–k that is , my comment).

“Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel called on the government to annex Area C of the West Bank during a tour of Judea and Samaria led by the Knesset Land for Israel Caucus.”

“Knesset Land for Israel Caucus”. That,s a new one.

Shouldn,t that say , “Knesset Palestinian Land for Israel Caucus”.

Some choice comments from comedy central.

““We should tell the prime minister, the government and the Knesset that the time has come to annex Area C,” Ariel said.

“If someone asks about Areas A and B, than their time will come. When, we will see. For now, lets agree on Area C. There is more than 60% of the [West Bank] territory, with 50,000 Arabs. They do not pose a problem to the state of Israel,” he said.

“I am suggesting that we unite around this call,” he said.

Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria lack the full rights granted Israeli citizens in the rest of the country, said Ariel.

“This isn’t a normal situation,” he said. “There are too many laws that are not applicable and that discriminate negatively against us,” said the agriculture minister, himself a resident of Area C.”

Meanwhile back on this side of the Atlantic today`s Haaretz reports:
“Israel Slams Swedish FM for ‘Delusional’ Call to Probe ‘Extrajudicial Killings’ of Palestinians”

Tch Tch all this “slamming” and “blasting” by a country the size of New Jersey and so far all they are getting in return are “expressions of concern”.

Sooner or later the balloon is going to burst with the BDS movement at the forefront shining a light into the ugly Land of Creation. Hopefully this will start in Europe with European countries. These are consistently insulted by the Nitayshites as being biased,Israelophobic (just rolls of the tongue doesn`t it) and generally lacking in intellect. All this from a country which is still deluding itself that it can gain membership of the EU and thus cement its self identity as a true member of the club of Western nations and Western societies – as opposed to a shitty little cult colony in the Middle East. Hopefully in the very near future European countries will say, individually and collectively, OK if you despise us so much f…. off then,canceling trade and tariff arrangements,scrapping diplomatic and military ties,cultural ties,sporting ties,visa arrangements etc etc.

Little bullies are sometimes the hardest to deal with what with their perennial victimisation impressions and whatabouteries but I am sure Europe can cope in due course.

Retired diplomats. And there are hundreds of retired Israeli diplomats who will condemn them. Did they reject the Iranian or Saudi ambassador? Give me a break. Their national defense will collapse because of their folly. Debacle.

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